A Bottle of Wine and Dad's First Taste of Parenthood

The one thing I've learned (still attempting) to embrace from Nate is his spontaneity and never making a decision based on consequences; which is what all of my decision making is based upon. Anytime Nate makes a suggestion that will change our plans I always have a brief moment of panic and anxiety of what-ifs and then sometimes I let go and try to be in the moment with him. When I've let myself do this before it usually has positive results but the negative times are catastrophic day-ruiners.

Nate had his first realization of the selfless acts he'll have to encounter in the future. After a bottle of wine, someone has to finish it since I can't help, and late night music listening while I had already gone to bed, Nate had a brilliant idea. We've been wanting (dying) to see this band Real Estate and they're currently on tour. The closest they're coming to Florida is Atlanta, Georgia.

When I wake up in the morning and check my phone with one eye open I see an email from Nate, the subject line reads "Real Estate". At this point I already know they're on tour because we've casually spoken about it but then in the body of the email my eyes jump all over because I see a confirmation of flights booked and then I read "Hope you can fly. If not we can drive up that Monday?". Both eyes are open now. My anxiety is kicking in and I'm trying to scroll all over the email on my iPhone screen to see what dates the flights are booked. March 31st - April 1. My due date is April 8. I turned to Nate and he's still groggy from the wine and lack of sleep and I honestly don't remember what I said, if anything. I think I was still swallowing his 'surprise' (ironically he hates surprises but knows I love them) and just uttered sounds, not words until he asks if I saw his email and I think I just said, "You're crazy."  After waking up a little I reminded him that it's a week before my due date and I'm pretty sure I can't fly along with the big what if, I go into labor...

His response: "That's why I thought we could just drive up that Monday if you can't fly" Haha, what!? Driving from Tampa to Atlanta is like 6 1/2 hours with no traffic; how does a total of 13 hours in a car sound like a better alternative than a quick flight (that I can't be on)?

I don't know if I was turning a new leaf, my prego brain kicked in, I just wanted to be spontaneous because I really want to go see this show too or if I'm going through travel withdrawals but I agreed, "We'll ask the midwives about flying and maybe make the decision on March 30th". My thoughts of agreeing to this came down to thinking it would be good to be on my feet and moving around to help things progress so I'm not going too far past my due date. I'm already planning to leave work a couple weeks early so I can be on feet more, exercise, stretch my birthing positions, relax, get acupuncture, do yoga... anything natural to help labor come on time.

Side note... I was worrying about taking a trip to Miami for my birthday, the weekend of March 21, two weeks before my due date. When I saw my midwife I mentioned flying that weekend and as soon as I stuttered out 'flying' she just shook her head, no. That answers my other question! Whelp, a two hour driving radius it is for this almost 28 year old/official late 20's birthday trip!

Nate's response to everything, "Well I can fly, can I still go see Real Estate?"

Funny man. I love him.

Busy weekend for the bump & Nate's TV debut

The bump is growing and we were out on the town all weekend! My weekend started on Thursday after work for a night out with my Junior League girls shopping at the VIP kick-off party for the 10th Annual Holiday Gift Market.

Nate obviously had a longer day than me...hahaha I laugh every time I look at this!

Friday was a busy day with our birthing center appointment in the morning (which I'll elaborate more on the 19 week update) and then a full day on my feet working The Holiday Gift Market. 

After a long day it was sooo nice coming home to a clean house, freshly shaved little man and hosed down sweet horse.

Saturday began with a little bit of shopping at The Market and Nate's TV debut on the news which we didn't see until today! The Market has an area for the men to relax while their women shop called, The Man Cave; we linked up with a furniture company and set-up the necessities; sports and leather couches. Here's a little behind the scenes gossip... Nate didn't want to walk around the Market with me so he decided to just eat, again. He must have acquired my preggo sense of smell (my sinuses are blocking the intense smell I'm supposed to be having) because at first sniff he was all over some wings. I remember him texting me as I was shopping that he was in the man cave eating wings and Nate's the kind of person that doesn't know how to sit quietly alone, he needs to be talking to someone at all times, so he brought his food into the man cave. Nate's not into watching sports which is why I found it funny that he was sitting in the man cave in the first place so this morning when we watched the news segment on The Market he admitted that he originally sat next to an older woman and started asking what she bought to strike up a conversation so she asked if it was okay to change the channel and watch HGTV instead of sports; Nate said he preferred HGTV :)

The most exciting part of the weekend for us was listening to music all day at the Coastline Music Festival! We committed to the day because two bands we're fans of were playing; Surfer Blood and The Joy Formidable. Most of the bands are still a little too 'pop' for us but it's hard to refuse a full day of music in our 'genre' because it's so rare to find in Tampa and the city needs our support! 

There's always free ice cream at music fests :) Talenti is our go-to gelato and now they have gelato pops covered in dark chocolate. Genius.

 

Just buying papa a beer :)

 Watching Surfer Blood

Sunday has been our recovery day and giving the dogs their much needed attention!